THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT – Part One

THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT – Part One

When Jesus was with the Apostles, He told them that the Holy Spirit was with them but that they needed to wait for the promise of the Father and then the Holy Spirit would be in them.  He was talking about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that the Apostles, including 120 people, received in the upper room on Pentecost which was 50 days after Jesus had ascended into Heaven.  The Holy Spirit appeared in physical form as tongues of fire.  “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression.”  Acts 2:4

What is this power that they received?  What is this power that you and I can receive?  It is the power to hear from God, to speak in tongues, prophesy, do signs, miracles, and wonders, and much more.  In short, the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be made manifest through us as we seek the Lord.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the release of the power of the Holy Spirit within us that brings about the manifestation of His power living within us through the 9 gifts of the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit can manifest any one of these gifts through any believer anytime that He will want to do so. 

 

The Nine Gifts of the Holy Spirit are:

1.     Word of Wisdom

2.     Word of Knowledge

3.     Gift of Faith

4.     Healing

5.     Gift of Miracles

6.     Gift of Prophecy

7.     Gift of Discerning Spirits

8.     Speaking in Tongues

9.     Interpretation of Tongues

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit can be categorized into 3 groups:

Revelations gifts:  Word of Knowledge; Word of Wisdom

Power gifts:  Faith; Healing; Miracles; Prophecy; Discerning of spirits

Worship gifts:  Speaking in tongues; Interpretation of tongues

The explanation of the following gifts of the Spirit are from the article “9 Powerful Gifts of the Spirit From the Bible,” by Jack Wellman

REVELATION GIFTS:

The Word of Wisdom:

The Word of wisdom is important because it enables a person to speak with insight beyond their own understanding.  It is God giving us direction in a particular situation on how to act and apply that knowledge you have about something in your life.  For example, God may give you wisdom about not apply for a particular job or not to date or marry a particular person.

A Word of wisdom can also be given for the common good.  In a particular situation, you could be given wisdom about a particular group or person.  It could be a “gut feeling.”  Many times my husband will say, I just have a gut feeling about this and most of the time it is correct.  I am sure many of us have had this gut feeling.  Just remember that out of our inmost being will spring rivers of living water----the Holy Spirit.

The Word of Knowledge:

This gifts enables a person to know information supernaturally that they wouldn’t know through natural means.  It is simply the Holy Spirit giving us specific knowledge about something pertaining to us or someone else.  For example, a person leading a healing service might get a word of knowledge that someone in a particular part of the gathering was being healed of a particular disease.  It can come in the form of a word or something you see in your spirit.  Some people actually have pain in their own body where someone else is being healed.  I usually will see something like a word or a picture in my mind.

The word of wisdom and knowledge can operate together like it did for Joseph in the Bible.  God gave Joseph a dream that contained the word of knowledge about Egypt and the famine and then the word of wisdom about storing food to provide for people during the famine.

Dreams can be very powerful.  My husband has had many beautiful dreams.  I have had dreams that have literally set me in a particular direction.  All of us have dreams and all of us have thoughts that enter our minds and maybe word pictures.  We need to ask God what He is saying to us.  I believe He is speaking to us many times in many different ways. 

 

One day, when my husband and I were out of town, Marty got a sense that we should leave that very evening.  He had a “gut” feeling and as it turned out it was good that we left earlier than we had planned because as it turned out, he needed to contact his dad and several other things occurred that required our presence and action.  The Holy Spirit had given a word of knowledge and wisdom in this particular situation.

During the reception of Communion one day, the Lord gave me a word of knowledge about the Eucharistic Minister distributing Communion.  As I spoke to him about it one day, he confirmed the word to me.

THE POWER GIFTS:

Faith:

The gift of faith is a special grace given by God allowing someone to pray with extraordinary faith for something seeming impossible.  It is the confidence you have that what God has revealed to you through Jesus or the Holy Spirit through maybe a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge is going to happen at your command.

It is different than maybe just “ordinary” faith.  For example I have faith that when I flip a switch, a light will turn on.  I have faith that when I wake up in the morning that I can see, walk, hear, etc.

The gift of faith is necessary in our everyday lives.  In Mark 11:23 it says, “Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea!  And does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him.”

This is the kind of faith that God expects from us.  This is the kind of faith that needs the power of God to accomplish.  So many time Jesus said that because of one’s faith, that the person was healed.  When God gives us a word of knowledge for our own healing or that of someone else, we need to act on it.  Moses lifted up his staff and the sea opened up.  He also brought water out of the rock by faith.  Gideon defeated the Midianites by the manifestation of his faith in God to help him.

In our own lives, our granddaughter, Anastasia, was healed from a cancerous tumor wrapped around one of her kidneys.  A routine ultrasound revealed a cancerous tumor weeks before she was born.  We had faith in the Word of God and asked others to stand and when she was born, the tumor and the kidney were removed but the tumor was not cancer and now she is a very healthy 4 year old!!

HEALING AND MIRACLES:

Another power gift is healing.  God is a healer.  He is creator.  Jesus commissioned us before He ascended back to the Father in heaven to heal the sick.  Healing can be a natural process.  After all, healing comes from the Creator God.  We can also pray for healing.  Sometimes it produces immediate results and sometimes it happens over time. 

The gift of miracles produces mighty works of power that are instant and not explicable through any natural means.  Jesus performed many miracles.  He turned water into wine.  He multiplied the fish and the loaves of bread by the thousands.  He raised people from the dead and the list goes on.  

There have been healings and miracles that occur without human intervention such as mass healings at some events where no one touched anyone or said anything but the power of God was made manifest and healings and miracles have occurred. 

Just like it was mentioned before, the gifts of the word of knowledge and wisdom can also work hand in hand with healing.  A person may know exactly what to pray for as revealed by the Holy Spirit.  I think that this increases the person’s faith who is being prayed for and faith is the catalyst for most healings.  I know of some people who have not prayed for healing but have received a healing—even doubting Thomas’s. 

Healing and miracles are signs for the believer and the unbeliever.  So many times after Jesus performed miracles, more people believed in Him and spread the word about Him.  

The gift of faith is so important when it comes to healing.  The woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8 touched the hem of Jesus’ garment because she believed that if she touched the fringe of His garment that she would be healed, “And He said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well!  Go in peace.” Luke 8:48

This happened as Jesus was on His way to heal the daughter of Jairus.  After he healed the woman with the issue of blood he went to Jairus’ house and when he got there they said that the girl was already dead and they became fearful so Jesus asked everyone, except the girl’s father and mother, Peter, John and James to leave.  Why did He ask these people to leave?  I think because they were full of fear and they had lost their faith.  Fear cancels faith which is important in receiving your healing.

This also happened in Acts 9:40 when Peter sent all of the people out of the room after a woman had died and he commanded her to get up and she was resurrected from the dead.

This is part I for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  We will talk about the rest of the gifts in the next program.  We will also be talking about receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  So stay tuned.